Helping the Enemy

by Izzy Dixon

What if instead of the entire Chitauri race, Tony Stark only destroyed the army branch? What if instead of punishing him on Asgard, the All Father decided that Loki should be punished by them? What if Loki managed to alter the course of the Bifrost and made it back to Earth? What would happen if Tony had a daughter that decided to help Loki hide from the Chitauri wrath?

2. Chapter 2

As I meant to say in the first chapter: I own nothing except Toni with an I. Everything else belongs to the rightful owner

Toni jerks awake from her sleep instantly as the most recent of her nightmares fades from memory, frantic hazel eyes scanning the area around the room for any of the alien invaders that plagued her mind. Of course there were none and she sighs in relief, swearing aloud about her meds starting to fail. A small portion of her head throbs in agony and she winces, memories of the night before replying in her head as she presses her hands to her bandages. Her attention turns to the floor where Loki sleeps, mildly surprised that he managed to sleep peacefully for this long, she could have sworn he would have bitched until she gave up her bed.

With a suppressed yawn and a glance at the clock on the nightstand, the brown haired girl throws the sheet off and steps off the bed, careful not to make to much noise as she opens the door and ventures to the kitchen. Having memorized the exact layout of the tower, she easily maneuvers to the cabinet and pulls a small, glass cup from the shelf. After filling it to the brim with cold tap water and drinking, Toni feels her nerves settle slightly, the knots in her stomach unwinding once the water hits it. The glass is drained in record time and carefully set it in the sink once empty. After splashing a bit of the cool liquid on her face and drying it on a paper towel, she silently makes her way back to her room.

"You know," Loki says, making Toni jump harshly as he sits on the edge of her bed again. "You really should consider getting carpet on your floor. Hardwood is not only uncomfortable, but it gets terribly cold at night."

"You should invest in warning labels," the startled girl bites tiredly as she tries to soothe her racing heart while she shuts the door. "Really, a little warning would be nice before a man in weird clothes starts talking to me about carpet at three twenty five in the morning. I just about had a heart attack."

Loki scoffs and slides closer to the foot of the bed as the hazel-eyed girl reclaims her spot. "You're not nearly close enough to have a heart attack," he states as Toni rolls her eyes. "Trust me, even as a mortal, you have plenty of years before you need to worry about that."

"Right," she sighs. "Anyway, what are you doing up? You were asleep when I left a few minutes ago. What happened?"

The green-eyed man smirks at her. "Even with all the sleeping charms in the world, any being could hear the sound of your elephant feet walking around. Another reason to get carpet."

"I do not have elephant feet," Toni says wiggling her way back under the sheet that Loki sits on. "You just have hyper sensitive hearing."

Sensing her struggles, the black haired man rises from his seat slightly and Toni yanks her sheets back. She mutters quick thanks before Loki sits back down. "Why did you wake?" he asks with a raised brow. "You were sleeping so peacefully before."

This earns him a confused glare from Toni as she pulls her legs to her chest tightly. "Why the hell were you watching me sleep?" she responds, answering a question with a question in the way she knows people hate. "Creeper much?"

"I did nothing of the sort," Loki snaps, slightly angered by the fact she would even think something like that. "I meant after you took your medicine," he clarifies, reigning in his temper. "You fell asleep quickly after that and I was still awake. From the sound of your breathing, I assumed your mind was at peace."

"So now you're listening to me breathe?" Toni teases with a playful smirk that hides in the shadows. "You just get creepier and creepier with ever sentence you say, you know that right?"

The black haired man groans in annoyance and stands, nearly tripping over a discarded book in the process, and moves back to his spot on the floor. "I give up," he declares softly as he lies down. "There's no use of speaking when all you do is bend my words and use them against me."

Once again, the brown haired girl grins and lies on her stomach, peering down at Loki from the comfort of her bed. "Doesn't feel so good does it Mr. Mischief," she says lightheartedly.

Despite the feelings of annoyance that still linger in his core, Loki smirks in amusement and raises an eyebrow. "So you studied Norse Mythology have you," he says. "If so, how come you know not of Midgard and Asgard?"

Toni pulls her famous nonchalant shrug and rolls on her back to stare at the ceiling. "I studied you and Thor mainly," she explains, following a particularly nasty crack she made earlier in the week. "I kind of steered clear of anything with a lot of big words. My brain's been pretty screwed up since…" Her sentence trails off and the faint trace of smirk fades back into a frown.

Loki nods in understanding and pulls the blanket to his cover his arms. "Since the invasion," he finishes, irritated beyond belief that the comforter doesn't fit over his feet.

"Exactly," Toni says through a sigh. A slightly awkward silence falls over the two, the only sound being the faint car noises from below. Feeling uncomfortable in the quiet, the teenager groans and rolls back to her stomach to peer down at Loki. "I'm going to take a shower," she declares before rolling to the other side of the bed and stepping down. "Stay here and be quiet."

The black haired man stands quickly, careful not to hit his head on the side of the nightstand as he does. "What am I to do while you're gone?" he asks.

Toni shrugs as she grabs her towel from the back of the door and walks back to the bathroom. "I don't care," she starts as she hears Loki's approaching feet. "But don't touch anything that may explode and stay in my room." She spins around on her heel with a serious expression on her face. "Whatever you do, do NOT turn on the TV. I don't know how loud I had it, nor do I know what's on. Either way, you turn it on, we may be screwed."

The bathroom door shuts in his face and Loki stares for a few seconds before he's pulled from his small daze by the sound of running water. Not knowing what else to do, the black haired man turns and walks back to Toni's room, taking great care not to step too heavily on the hardwood he despises. As his eyes have full adjusted to the darkness of the room, he can almost clearly see around the area.

A tall bookshelf is set in the wall across from the door, the large window that filters light beside it. Across from the bed, set in the middle of the room, is a rather large and very heavy looking black rectangle. Loki assumes that to be the TV she mentioned earlier. His eyes fall on a small lump of a figure beside the bed and his dark brows furrow together in confusion.

Curiosity kicks in and he silently makes his way over to the mass, bending over and gathering it into one of his cold hands. A small and clearly amused smirk pulls the corners of his lips up as he looks over the well-worn stuffed squirrel in his hand. It was clear that this girl had a bit of a childish streak, but this surprised him quite a bit. The same girl who nearly took his head off a few hours before has a teddy bear to protect her through the night? The thought made him chuckle quietly.

"I know I probably shouldn't ask this," Toni's voice says from the doorway as Loki jumps from being caught off guard. "But what the hell are you laughing at?"

The black haired man turns with his hands behind his back and sees his host with dripping hair in a different set of pajamas, her foot tapping slowly in expectance of an answer. "Well," he starts, averting his eyes to a different spot on the floor. "I was thinking… Why does the maiden who personally told me how much the mortals have gotten stronger over the years need a stuffed animal to sleep with?" As the last words float out, Loki lifts his arm so the squirrel comes into view.

Instinctively, Toni lunges for her prized possession, but it's quickly lifted out of her reach by the mischief god, who smirks down at her. "Give it back, Loki!" the brown haired girl whispers loudly, bouncing on her tiptoes with an extended arm towards her toy. "Now!"

Loki smirks in amusement and switches arms, still holding the squirrel out of Toni's arm range. "You'll have to jump for it," he teases. "Come on, Toni. You can't possibly expect to get your friend back with such little effort can you?"

Toni smirks and drops back to her feet, no longer trying to reach her stolen toy. "I don't need effort," she says in a tone hinting foul play. "I have technology."

A glowing blue hand forms above his head and snags the squirrel from his grip, careful not to tear the head off as it does. The hand drops the stuffed toy into Toni's waiting hands before the nanomachines disappear back into her gloves. "How did you do that?" Loki asks, watching as the last of the blue dots flee back to their home. "You aren't even near the gloves that host them."

"As you said yourself, Loki-babe," she says, readjusting a loose eye on her childhood friend. "I've had some free time on my hands, time that allowed me to perfect and change the designs multiple times over the course of the two months since you left. Meaning now I can control the nanomachines with a single thought." The signature shrug pulls her shoulders up again as she brushes past Loki to set the squirrel on her bed. "Although I've been told multiple times to rethink the idea of controlling them with a thought. I kind of broke three TVs, a chandelier, ten coffee tables and half a floor of the tower during my last nightmare…."

The alleged war criminal turns to look at Toni as she stretches her arms over her head, not sure whether or not to believe she caused that much damage during a simple bad dream. Then again, this is the same girl who single handedly decapitated a Chitauri warrior and used his own head as a weapon against his allies. Nothing seemed like too much damage when she was involved.

"Oh," Toni says, pulling Loki from his thoughts as she turns to smile sweetly at him. "If you ever touch my squirrel again without prior consent, I'll rip your arms off and deliver your bleeding body to the Chitauri myself. Understand?"

Loki raises an eyebrow at the threat, gauging the severity of it. It's hard to tell due to the fact that the grin she has causes her to close her eyes, making it that much harder to read her. Not willing to take the chance of angering her, having seen her destructive power on the battlefield, the green-eyed man nods. "I understand," he says, placing a hand on his chest.

"Good," Toni says, the grin fading into a decent half smile. "Now, since we're both up, how bout we-"

"Toni?" her father calls from the stairs, making all of Toni's hair stand on edge. "You still up? Who the hell are you talking too?"

"Shit!" she hisses in fear as her father's footsteps draw closer. "Um… You really need to disappear…. How much magic mojo do you have left?"

"I know not of this mojo you talk about," Loki says with a raised eyebrow. "But I may have enough magic to charm myself from your father's sight for a short amount of time."

"Then do it," Toni says, keeping herself from having a full out panic attack by sheer willpower. "Hurry!"

Without further delay, Loki mutters a few words from a different language and a faint green hue glows around him before fading completely. "It is done," he tells her, right before Tony walks in.

"Hey, kiddo," the oldest Stark says, wiping his eye slightly from fatigue. "What are you still doing up?"

Seeing that Loki has yet to be caught by her father, she assumes his magic is working properly and mentally sighs in relief. Outwardly, she fakes a yawn and shrugs. "Had another nightmare," she says, knowing herself it's the half-truth. The first time she woke up was because Loki hit the roof. "The dream suppressors are starting to fail."

"Did you take more before you went to bed the second time?" Tony asks, crossing his arms across his chest as he leans against the doorframe. "The doctor said that they might fail if the dosage is doubled. Or were you not listening when he said that?"

Toni's head tilts to the side slightly, eyes wandering to the crack over her bed in deep thought. "Oh yeah…" she says hazily. "I forgot about that…" A smile forms on her lips and she shrugs in childlike uncaring. "Ah well, right?"

"No, not ah well," the father says firmly, wiping the smile off Toni's face and making Loki raise an eyebrow. "You know you need your sleep, and if the medicine you're on helps you do that, then you need to take responsibility and know not to double up."

A small smirk twitches on the ends of Toni's lips, making Loki's eyebrows rise higher in more confusion. "Words seem meaningless coming from the man who barely slept in a week," she comments.

Tony opens his mouth to respond, but his jaw just ends up hanging there from his lack of witty retorts. Instead, he closes his mouth and yawns. "Good point," he says. "How bout we both go to sleep, hm? After all, it's clear that we both need it. You're talking to invisible people for Pete's sake."

"You have no idea…" the brown haired girl mutters, eyes flashing to Loki for a second before locking themselves on the ground. "Anyway, I'll go to sleep if you do, deal?"

"Deal," the older Stark says with a nod and a smothered yawn. He turns and starts down the hallway, stretching his arms over his head as he does so. "Night, kid," he says when he hits the stairs.

"Night, Dad," she calls back, listening to his foot steps fade then disappear downstairs. "Okie dokie Loki," she says, turning back to her bed with an audible yawn. "You can undo your little magic trick now. You look tired."

"Indeed," the black haired man says, snapping his fingers and making himself visible to the world again. Not that it mattered anyway, he and Toni are the only people left in the room. "What were you and your father talking about when you said dream suppressors and medicine to help you sleep?" he asks, walking around her bed to his spot on the floor.

Toni sighs and turns on her other side to face the door, tightening her grip on the small suffed animal slightly. "Nothing much," she yawns. "Just an after effect of the invasion. Nightmares, sleep loss, lack of appetite, mild to severe hallucinations." It's at this point she pauses to yawn and her eyes flutter shut. "List goes on… But that doesn't matter right now," Toni says quickly to change the subject before the conversation sparks a bad memory. "What matters is sleep and getting you to Malibu without getting caught. Mainly sleep though…"

The sentence fades out and Loki knows that Toni has fallen asleep. He notes how she took her father's advice and didn't take more pills, clearly not a big fan of the nightmares that proceed. Then again, he did detect the slightest hint of fear behind her sleepy tone, a sign that they may not be normal nightmares she's having.

The black haired man shakes his head to clear the invasive thoughts and sighs from the floor, once again in the battle with the floor to find some comfort. He can see the battle is far from winnable on this most unsatisfying bare floor and groans quietly in annoyance. The sorcerer mutters more words under his breath and falls asleep, his last thoughts cursing the girl on the bed for having uncomfortable floors.

"Up and at 'em, kiddo," the voice in Loki's ear calls, hopefully not directed at him. It takes a second to remember the voice and when he does, he carefully slides under the bed to avoid being seen.

"Come on, Toni," Tony says again, grabbing and yanking the sheets from the bed itself, sparking a tired and irate grunt from the sleeping girl. "We leave for Malibu in a few hours. I already let you sleep in late enough."

Toni finally complies and sits up, a hand lifting up and scratching the side of her head. "What time is it?" she says around a yawn as he eyes adjust to the bright sunlight that filters through the cracks in the blinds. "And what do you mean you let me sleep in?"

Loki watches the man's feet venture across the floor toward the closet. "I mean it's three in the afternoon and our flight leaves in three hours," he clarifies, grabbing a baby blue suitcase from the top shelf and setting on the foot of the bed, narrowly missing his daughter's exposed toes. "I came in at eight to wake you up then, but I heard you snoring and decided against it. It's been a while since I heard you snore."

"I do not snore," Toni replies, sliding from the bed and stretching her back. "You're the one that snores Mr. Let-Me-Sound-Like-A-Freaking-Motorboat-At-Half-Pas t-Twelve."

Tony shakes his head and walks back to the door. "Right," he says sarcastically. "I'm the one who sounds like a motorboat. If that's true, you're a…whatever's louder than a motorboat."

"You can't even come up with a decent comeback," the hazel-eyed girl responds, watching her father disappear down the hall. "I win!"

"Get ready," he father calls back from halfway down the stairs. "Or Pepper will be on both our asses."

Toni smothers another yawn and sits on the bed, only to jump back up when Loki starts sliding out from his hiding spot. After she makes sure her heart didn't explode or jump out of her chest, the brown haired girl sighs and walks to her closet, now fully awake. "Again, those warning labels," she says through a slightly haggard breath. "Or you can wear a bell around your neck all the time… We should do that…"

"I'd rather not," Loki opposes as he pulls himself fully from under the bed and stretches. "The sound would get annoying after a while and I'd just toss the damned thing in the garbage pile."

"If you keep scaring me, you won't have a choice," she retorts blankly, grabbing an armful of clothes and laying them in the suitcase. "Thanks for the wake up though, I really needed it."

"Your welcome," the black haired man says, a bit unsure of what her tone suggested. He watches as she moves from her closet, the large dresser under the TV and her bag on the bed with little to no hesitation. "I wish to bathe," Loki declares as she drops three pairs of socks in the bag.

"Can't," the girl replies simply. "First, we don't have clothes for you yet, meaning you may be walking around in the same dirty stuff after you get out, making the bath seem completely pointless." She moves back to the closet and glances over her unpacked garments to decide on an outfit for the day. "Second," she says, settling on a simple pair of light purple skinny jeans and a black tank top. "My dad already thinks I took a bath earlier in the day. If the water's running and I'm wandering around out here, he'll get suspicious and go to check. Either way, you can't get a bath till we get you clothes…"

"When will that be?" he questions as she pauses to peel the bandages from her head, wincing slightly as some of the blood makes the cloth stick to the cut. He earns a slightly annoyed glance from Toni and decides to let the conversation drop, knowing that she either has a plan in her head or is making it up as she goes along, another trait he saw her perform on the battlefield. His attention falls to the unmade bed and lands on the squirrel Toni so valiantly defended. "Are you not taking your stuffed rodent with you on the trip?" he asks.

"Of course I am," she replies as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "His family needs him after all. Although I don't think he'll be too happy with going back without his uncle."

Loki's black brows knit together in confusion, as he turns to the small girl behind him. "Uncle?" he repeats as a question. "What uncle?"

"The turkey you blew up while we were fighting," she says, looking for a decent place to change. "Remember? After you got blasted back in here after you threw my dad out the window, you came after me cause I was still in the house. You shot your little staff beam at me and missed, taking out my giant stuffed turkey instead." She turns and frowns at him. "How exactly do I tell his wife that her husband was killed in a war that he wasn't even supposed to be involved in?"

"How exactly is a turkey in anyway related to a squirrel?" the black haired man asks, barely catching anything else in that entire sentence. "I mean really, how did that work?"

Toni sighs and drops the tank top on the bed. "Ok, so the turkey's grandparents are a beaver and a duck, resulting in a platypus," she starts, having memorized the entire family history she made up since the day she came up with it. "The platypus was very rebellious because she claims her parents adopted her. So the platypus went off and got with a goose and somehow ended up with a turkey and a squirrel. The goose got angry, accused the platypus of cheating and left, leaving the turkey and squirrel with the platypus to go off with the unicorn.

"The platypus turned into an emotional wreck and started beating her kids senseless in her despair and somehow got together with the horse. The squirrel and the turkey eventually ran away and their lives got better, the squirrel getting with the cat and the turkey going away with the panda. The squirrel had two kids, another squirrel and a lizard, due to some drunken accident in Vegas but that doesn't matter now. On the other hand, the turkey and the panda couldn't have kids but they didn't worry and still loved each other very much. The turkey decided to take his nephew, the squirrel and cat's child, the other squirrel, on vacation to New York with their generous host, me, while the Stark tower was being built. Then the man with the funky hat, you, came along and killed the turkey. Now this squirrel's in shock and is going to have to break it to the panda that her husband died, all the while living with the memory of his death burned into his mind for the rest of his life."

Loki's eyebrows pull together in more confusion than ever, still trying to process the entire last half of the story. "When exactly did you make this story up?" he asks once he thinks he has everything sorted out.

The brown haired girl averts her eyes back to the tank top and purses her lips. "The kids at school don't really like me," she admits, still marveling in the fact that she's allowing herself to open up to Loki so easily. "So I don't really have a lot of friends. That and the fact that dad's gone most of the time on some Iron Man mission or some fancy ass party I'm no longer allowed to go to…" A tired sounding sigh passes her lips as they pull up into a half smile. "So you can say I have a lot of time on my hands…"

"Clearly," the green-eyed man says, glancing back at the squirrel on the pillow, wondering how the girl who has no friends manages to stay so positive. When he was a child, barely any of the other children would acknowledge his presence unless Thor was with him and he was never this happy. Of course, he would always take his mind off the subject by burying himself in the library and imagining himself in the place of the hero. Maybe the stories she makes up for her stuffed animals is how she escapes from her cruel reality.

"Loki," Toni says forcefully, growing tired of trying to pull the man from his thoughts. He jumps slightly and turns to look at her, clearly hearing her that time. "I said get in the closet, I need to change."

"Why can't you change in the bathroom?" he asks, making his way to the blue painted door. "It's completely unnecessary for me to attempt to squeeze myself in this cramped area with all your other belongings."

"Can it, Grumpy," she says, pushing an armful of pants and jackets away to clear a space for her black haired guest. "I don't take that long and I'm not taking the risk of changing with you in the room."

Loki wiggles his way into the small space she made him and sits, hugging his knees to his chest to avoid being hit by the door as it closes. The darkness of the room consumes him immediately, but he doesn't mind much. It was much darker when he fell from Asgard to the places beyond the nine realms. The shoes and discarded clothes and other belongs that lie on the floor annoy him immensely though. He grabs the first thing he can and tosses it away from him, hitting the wall on the other side with a loud thud.

Outside the closet, Toni hears the thump and rolls her eyes as she pulls up the zipper on her jeans. She knows that the closet is probably the least comfortable place to be shoved in, but the least he can do is try and keep it down. After hearing another, smaller thump on the wall, the brown haired girl sighs and tugs the tank top on over her black bra and walks to the closet to retrieve the easily annoyed fugitive. "All right, Happy," she says, swinging open the door before Loki throws another shoe at the wall. "You've been released from solitary."

"Who are you releasing from solitary?" Tony asks, biting into pear as he stands in the doorway again. "And what was that thumping I heard from up here?"

Toni slams the door shut in fright and turns to her father. "Jeez, Dad," she starts, mentally apologizing for nearly crushing Loki's hand in the door. "A little warning would be nice."

"Sorry, kid," he says around a mouthful of the juicy fruit. "I'm a dad. We forfeit the need to announce our presence in exchange for an extra set of eyes and the ability to tell what you're doing before you do it. Now what are you talking to?"

A mild sense of panic envelopes the brown haired girl but she masks it with a black stare and a nonchalant shrug. "My bra," she lies, knowing that that's the only thing to keep him out of her business. "It was being bad and not hooking right, so-"

"Ok," the oldest Stark says, holding up a hand in disgust. "Ok, ew. Never in a million, billion years will I ever even consider talking about your bra issues." With that, Tony turns and walks away. "We're leaving in ten minutes under Pepper's orders. If you're not in the car by then, you're getting left."

"Right," Toni mutters, listening to the footsteps disappear down the hall then down the stairs. As soon as her dad gets out of range, Toni turns and throws the closet door open to a very stunned Loki. "I am SO sorry, Loki," she says, grabbing his arm and pulling him to his feet, away from the small closet. "I had no idea he was here and I panicked! Are your fingers ok?"

Loki nods and bends his legs in attempt to restore some of the blood flow to them. "I have been better," he admits, turning his eyes down to the green tint of Toni's eyes. "But I will survive. But please, a small warning before you attempt to mutilate my hand."

"Don't blame me!" she starts, going back to her bag and lightly placing the nephew squirrel in beside the stack of under garments. "Dad's the one who did the whole sudden appearance act. If anything, go lecture him."

"Completely unlikely as I'm not even supposed to be here," Loki responds, not catching on to Toni's sarcasm. "If I do, our entire plan is wasted."

The brown haired girl raises an eyebrow and walks to the full body mirror on the wall. "Sarcasm, dear Loki," Toni says back as she runs her fingers through her hair then deems it fit for the day. "I'd never send you out to face my father alone." A chuckle dies in her throat as she turns to the confused man beside her. "He's much worse than I am when he's mad. I always beat him though, I'm his daughter. You, on the other hand, don't stand a chance…"

"I'll keep that in mind," he says with another small nod as his stomach takes the opportunity to demonstrate the whale mating call. "It appears my mortal form requires sustenance," he says flatly.

Toni snorts and walks to her suitcase, tossing her brushing in lightly before zipping it closed. "No shit," she says, grabbing the handles and lifting it with mild difficulty. "Stay here, I'll see if I can snag you something when I come back."

"Where are you going?" he asks, watching a long handle appear from the top of the bag as it starts gliding across the floor.

"To put my bag in the car," she answers, already halfway down the hall. "Stay put, I can't have you getting caught on the first day. That would makes us both look like idiots."

Loki opens his mouth to protest, but sees it as being useless since she's not listening anymore. Off in the distance, he hears a door open then shut again. After a few seconds of silence, the door reopens and closes again; light footsteps follow but slowly trail away from the direction of the room. The black haired man raises an eyebrow and pokes his head out the door to see where Toni went.

"I assure you, sir," an unseen voice says, making Loki jump and tense instantly. "Ms. Stark is on her way to the kitchen. You have not been forgotten."

"Who are you," Loki demands, still trying to pinpoint the location of the speaker. "Show yourself you coward."

"I'm Jarvis," the voice says again, the speaker still unknown. "I am the Stark family's automated housekeeper. I'm sorry, but I cannot show myself."

"Shit!" Toni's slightly frightened voice says from the doorway. "I forgot about Jarvis… Damn it…."

"Don't worry ma'am," Jarvis says. "Your secret is safe with me. It's obvious that you feel very strongly about helping this man, unlike any other aspect of your life sadly…"

"Thanks J," the brown haired girl says with a roll of the eyes. "You're too kind. Anyhow, Loki, I snagged you a few pop tarts and a banana." She holds out the foil wrapped pastries and the yellow fruit as if a peace offering to a wild beast.

Loki raises an eyebrow at the shiny packaging and reaches for the banana. "I'll stick with this," he says hesitantly. "I don't even want to know what possibly could be held in those…pop tarts…."

"Aw come on," Toni says, tossing two packs on the bed as she tears into one herself. "You can't be picky when you live with me. Besides, cookies and cream isn't all that bad."

"I'll pass," the black haired man says dryly, already starting on the banana. "I hope you have more of these."

Toni shakes her head and takes another bite of the dry rectangles. "Nope, sorry, buddy. That's kind of why I wanted you to get into pop tarts. There's more of them." Loki opens his mouth to speak but Toni cuts him off. "Before you start ranting, I want you to know that there will be more stuff on the plane."

His jaw snaps shut and he nods again. "Good," he says before biting into his fruit. "What kind of 'stuff' exactly?"

"I don't know," Toni says with an exasperated wave of the hands. "Stuffy stuff….stuff. Edible stuff!"

"Oh yes, that does wonders to clarify," Loki says sarcastically. "I can't wait to be filled with unspecified edible stuff."

"Can it, Cow Lick," she responds with a roll of the eyes as she finishes off the pop tarts. "We'll see when we get there. I know they'll have more stuff in there than here for now but until then quit whining…. Eat your banana and be sad…"

One of Loki's brows quirks up in slight amusement at the sudden childish tone Toni's voice has taken. "That's the best comeback you can think of?" he says around a chuckle. "And my safety is in your hands?"

"What do the two have to do with each other?" the hazel-eyed girl says with another wild arm motion. "Anyway, I'm sure our time has long since ran out. We gotta go. Oh, and don't forget to charm yourself. You think you can hold it until we get to my room on the plane?"

Loki scoffs and tosses the banana peel in the trashcan behind the door. "You underestimate my abilities, young mortal," he starts. "I have more than enough energy to hold this charm."

"Great," Toni says half-heartedly. "Really, wonderful. Now say your magic mumbo jumbo and turn invisible before we get left."

The black haired man rolls his eyes at the small girl's impatience but does as told, nodding once the charm had taken effect. His host returns the nod and they both walk out into the glaring afternoon sun.

"It's about time," Pepper calls from the passenger window. "Hurry up! At this rate we're gonna miss our flight."

"Uh, no," Tony says beside her as his daughter opens the door to the backseat. "Have you forgotten who's driving here? We'll be there in no time."

Toni shuts the door after herself, making sure Loki's fully in the car before turning to her father. "In one piece, Dad," she comments as she fastens her seat belt and aids Loki in hooking his. Thank goodness her father doesn't pay much attention to what's happening in the back. "That's the main point. To get there in one piece."

"Shut it, Shorty," the oldest Stark teases dryly as he shifts into drive and starts down the road. "We'll be fine."

"That's what he said in Paris," she comments quietly to Loki. "Before he nearly killed us by opening the emergency hatch on the plane at three thousand feet in the air…"

Loki's brows furrow together in nervousness as he turns his attention to the brown haired man in the driver's seat. "And we're to trust him with our lives?" he comments aloud, not worried about being heard by anyone but Toni. "I'd rather run with the wild beasts of Asgard then…"